Aviation board members have mounted a full-press effort in the past month to persuade the History Museum board of the advantages of such a merger. Aviation board vice president Micky Blackwell, former president of Lockheed, is to make a presentation today in favor of such an approach to the Museum Board in a 2 p.m. work session at the History Museum.
"I can't see a downside to it," Blackwell recently told the MDJ about the proposed merger.
The History Museum board earlier this month voted unanimously in favor of exploring the merger, but two members expressed numerous reservations about the possibility prior to the vote, and others now are beginning to grouse as well about the speedy pace of the proposal and other matters as well.
Among the most commonly heard complaints is that the Aviation Board has foundered despite its "star-studded" membership, with a board that also includes Cobb Commission Chair Sam Olens and Lockheed Martin VP and plant manager Lee Rhyant, plus an advisory board whose members include both of Georgia's U.S. Senators (Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss), former Gov. Roy Barnes, Gov. Sonny Perdue, former Atlanta Mayor Andy Young, KSU President Dr. Dan Papp, KSU President Emeritus Dr. Betty Siegel, Southern Polytechnic State University President Dr. Lisa Rossbacher, Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway (who is against the merger proposal) and state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. Yet the museum was unable to make a go of its plans despite raising beaucoup bucks in recent years.
"Where'd all their money go?" some History Museum members are asking. "And if they couldn't get it done despite all their firepower, how is our little museum board going to manage to do it?"
The History Museum is housed in the top two floors of the antebellum Kennesaw House off Marietta Square, and has been negotiating without success for some time with its landlord, the Downtown Marietta Development Authority, to take over the ground floor as well.
Some wonder whether the merger talk is the first step toward shifting the History Museum's operations to the aviation museum site, thus freeing up the Kennesaw House for other use. And some suspect that powerful city Councilman Philip Goldstein's support for the merger is driven by possible hopes of adding the Kennesaw House to his family's downtown real estate empire.
HISTORY MUSEUM board Chair Brent Brown of Chesley-Brown International, a security company, has been pushing hard for his board to pursue the acquisition of the Aviation Museum's assets, which appear to consist primarily of a collection of a half-dozen or so aging aircraft parked and/or mounted in a field at the museum site; plus the site itself. That 15.5-acre site, at the corner of South Cobb Drive and Atlanta Road, is part of the Lockheed Martin campus that is owned by the Air Force and sublet to the Cobb Board of Commissioners for $1 a year. Merger critics note the lease terms greatly restrict what the site could be used for.
The site also includes a former Army Corps of Engineers building being touted by merger advocates as a possible temporary museum or storage site for the history museum's collection, but a ranking county elected official told AT on Monday that building would be better off demolished.
Aviation Board member Chuck Clay recently pegged his organization's assets at $12 million, including $5.5 million for the land, but, critics say, with much of the other assets consisting of in-kind contributions, not cash.
Brown argues that the lack of visible progress by the aviation museum, which paid for architectural blueprints for a museum but never started construction, has deterred donors (of which he notes he is one) from continuing to give. He and others have noted the rundown appearance of the aviation museum site, which one observer close to the situation described as coming close to fitting the definition of "blighted." The biggest aircraft in the collection, a Lockheed C-141 cargolifter, for now is missing both wings, and it and the others are exposed to the elements and seemingly in need of TLC. Even the sign at the border of the property, announcing to passersby that it is the future site of the aviation museum, stands dirty and askew.
The sagging economy also played a big role in drying up donations to the proposed museum. But that would theoretically continue to apply even if it was taken over by the History Museum.
Some suggest the Aviation board focused too much attention on an education component, at the museum's expense. Linking up with the History Museum would allow the aviation museum to operate for now under the umbrella of the History Museum's accreditation, thereby making it easier to raise funds. A merger or acquisition also could make it easier to spring loose the $500,000 pledged to the aviation museum by the county board of commissioners five years ago. But that money could only be used for capital expenses, not operating expenses, and will not be released until the aviation museum effort has $2 million cash in the bank - not including any outstanding pledges or in-kind contributions. And the ranking county official told AT Monday that the museum where nowhere close to having that much.
Retired Lockheed President Bob Ormsby, one of the driving forces behind the founding of the aviation museum effort, and who is pushing hard for the merger, suggests that it would eventually be a tremendous draw to pull tourists from Interstate 75 into town, many of whom, he said, would then visit other attractions as well, including the History Museum.
Yet one of the senior members of the Aviation Board has hurt his cause in recent weeks with his repeated criticisms of the History Museum, saying that "people aren't interested" in its focus on the Civil War, adding that the History Museum won't likely be around in another decade or so because "young people prefer more interactive-style museums, not just looking at display cases."
OTHERS ARE SURPRISED that History Museum founder Dan Cox seems excited about the prospect of the takeover. After all, he has long lamented lack of support from City Hall, with he and his own board scraping to barely get by for years.
Now, with a new mayor (Thunder Tumlin) taking office in January who is a former member of the History Museum board - and believed to be cool to the merger idea, especially with the city's hotel/motel tax revenues expected to take a big hit from the recession next year - and with the real prospect of his museum gaining full use of the Kennesaw House and strong support from the city, Cox seems ready to step off into the unknown via the aviation museum, critics muse.
Cox is widely admired for crafting an outstanding museum from scratch over the past 15 years. Could he recreate the magic on a new project? Or would the aviation museum project be a step for him and his board into the unknown - into "the wild blue yonder," so to speak?
Stay tuned. Today's work session on the third floor of the Kennesaw House at 1 Depot St., is open to the public.
(Full disclosure: Around Town columnist Bill Kinney and Joe Kirby both serve on the History Museum board and MDJ publisher/AT columnist Otis A. Brumby Jr. is a member of the Aviation Board, as was Kinney at one point.)
KRIS WILSON last Christmas raised $2,000 for dogs and their handlers who serve on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the next few days, she hopes to double that amount. She has decorated a Christmas tree at her family-owned hair salon on Dallas Highway with ornaments that bear the names of the dogs and identification numbers of their handlers. Donors are facing a Dec. 5 deadline to send packages to service members overseas.
Wilson volunteers with the Military Working Dog Team Support Association, Inc., a non-profit group that sends supplies to military working dog teams. You can drop by the Bass Hair Salon run by her parents, Jean and Dewey Bass, at 2650 Dallas Highway, Suite 180, to pick an ornament with the name of an animal or handler.
A few items on the wish lists include hygiene items, snacks, books, crossword puzzles, handheld games for the handlers, and sturdy chew toys, tennis balls, rope tug toys and dog cots for the animals. Donations and grooming items are also accepted. For more information about the organization, contact www.mwdtsa.org or e-mail Ms. Wilson at mwdtsa.carepacks@yahoo.com
AS ANOTHER THANKSGIVING approaches, we are again reminded how each is different. This year in Cobb we are mindful of the devastating and tragic floods in Austell and Powder Springs this fall that washed away the homes and dreams of many; the fear of the swine flu; and the severe economic downtown that has wreaked havoc and hardship on the lives of so many of our neighbors and fellow Cobb Countians.
Still, we have much to be thankful for: Our country, with its legacy of liberty and justice; and our community, our families and our friends.
And to our faithful readers of Around Town, you are added reason to celebrate.
Happy Thanksgiving, 2009!
- Bill, Joe and Otis
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